When Shaquille O'Neal demanded a trade from Los Angeles earlier this year, he made his demands during the off-season, thereby sparing himself the bad blood of the L.A. fans.

So he really can't relate to what his good friend Vince Carter is going through in Toronto. Still, Shaq had supportive words for Carter yesterday.

"Me and him have been good friends for a long, long time, and every time I talk to him I just tell him to hang in there and play his game," Shaq said. "Vince is a phenomenal player and whenever you consider a phenomenal player, all the pressures and all the demands are on, so he has to live with that. So when he has a great games, they're going to love him and when he has horrible games, they're going to hate him.

"Welcome to my life Vince," Shaq added, with a chuckle.

Other than wanting to stay in the East, Carter has not really identified one city he wants to get traded to, unlike Shaq, who wanted to come to Miami from the get go.

"I like to consider myself a very intelligent guy, so when I demanded a trade I knew what I was doing and I knew where I wanted to live and I knew where I wanted my children to live," he said.

Shaq had interesting words about the way teams get up to play the Heat.

"We need to realize that when teams play us, they're going to be playing way above their heads, and we can't be playing with a double edged sword all the time," he said. "We have to assassinate them before they assassinate us. Excuse me for the choice words."

RUMOUR OF THE DAY

There's a movement in Chicago to have Bulls centre Eddy Curry traded to Toronto for Carter.

WADING IN

One of the reasons Raptors point guard Rafer Alston opted to sign with Toronto this season was the emergence last year of Miami guard Dwyane Wade. Wade, arguably the best young guard in the NBA, credits Alston with helping his game. The two played together with the Heat last season.

"Different ways I can get open and different ways I can get my teammates the ball," Wade said of Alston's help.